REVISED: No Matter What
by x1-TaKeN-oVeR
Summary: REVISED: People are starting to get upset that at every function Pilot 01 is nowhere to be found. Now it is up to the Preventers to bring him back...but what if he doesn't want to come back? New Ch. 6 coming soon!
1. Default Chapter

Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Warnings: cursing

Pairings: 1x2x1

Disclaimers: I OWN THE WORLD! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Info: This is a year after the war and all the boys are 17...duh! They all joined the Preventers that is headed by Une. They are all friends with Relena, as well (I MADE HER NICE IN THIS ONE!). Duo and Wufei stole money from OZ and took money when Relena offered it (guys gotta eat!). Trowa and Quatre are taken care of by Quatre and his money but Heero didn't take any money. He chose to earn it the honest way.

Okay, enough of that! Go and read!

* * *

"Heero, please say something." Silence was the only thing that answered Duo; he tightened the sheets around his waist and sat up more in the bed. "Heero, I didn't want you to find out like this...I didn't want to hurt you like this," he tried again. 

"Isn't it a little late for that?" Heero whispered, voice slightly cracking despite his attempt to keep it steady.

Duo looked down and his folded hands and sighed. "Heero, I know that all of this is...really _bizarre_ and confusing but just let me..."

"No," Heero interrupted, "you don't have to say anything. I just-I just don't understand; I gave you _everything_ I had. I thought that you loved me too but..._God _what was I thinking," he turned burning blue eyes towards Hilde who was smirking viciously under a thin sheet that barely covered her naked curves.

Hilde watched as Duo turned towards her and wiped the smirk off her face. She gently took his hand and laid it on her thigh as she stared into his eyes. She let a solemn look pass over her face as she gazed into Duo's shining eyes.

Heero watched the transition and felt his eyes narrow in anger; it was an act...it was all just an act. How could she...

Hilde turned sad eyes towards the boy standing at the foot of the bed, "Heero, I'm not sorry this happened because," she squeezed Duo's hand, "I love him and I need him. I think more so then you do...the only thing that I'm sorry about is hurting you. I have always thought of you as a dear friend to me and..."  
"Bull shit," his anger flared. How dare she; why couldn't Duo see that this was all an act? "Do not sit there and try to tell me that load of _bullshit._ You've disliked me possibly since the moment you saw me but it was just too much for you to handle when you saw that I had Duo. You were so jealous that I had Duo's love and you didn't that you couldn't take."

"Heero," Duo finally spoke up.

Heero went on unable to stop the things coming from his mouth, "You think that I don't know about this little act that you're putting on but I do. I know all about you...you may have fooled Duo but you won't fool me."

"Heero, quit it! You have no idea what you're talking about." Duo started to get angry, he could see that Heero would have some dislike towards Hilde, it was expected. But this was too much; he was accusing her she was in no way capable of.

Heero continued, "I should've paid more attention but I didn't think you'd be this _deranged _to do this."

"Heero, I said stop!" Duo yelled getting up in the bed.

Heero swung his head to Duo watching as he stood up. He saw Hilde looking at him with a particular smirk before slouching down and covering her face, sobbing loudly.

Duo wrapped his arms around Hilde's bare shoulders and brought her head to lie between his neck and shoulder. He glared coldly at Heero and whispered soothing things into Hilde's ear. She slowly stopped crying but kept her hands covering her face while leaning on Duo.

Duo let go of Hilde and stood on floor. He picked up various articles of clothing while talking through clenched teeth, "What in the _hell_ is wrong with you? You have no right to blame Hilde at all." Duo looked squarely at Heero once he was clothed in a pair of pants. He grabbed something from the floor and threw them over to Hilde. She caught them with ease and began to put them on. She recognized them as her red dress and bra and panties.

Heero stared dumbly as Duo began walking towards him. He thought that Duo would possibly yell indecencies at him while telling him just how "wrong" he was. Instead of his ears bleeding from Duo's amazingly vast vocabulary, he got a bleeding lip. The one hit not only gave him a bleeding lip...but a bleeding heart and the combination threw him off balance. He fell to the ground heavily.

Duo looked down at Heero coldly and felt a soft hand slide into his. He looked over and saw Hilde looking up at him sadly. He had no idea how Heero could accuse her of 'acting' remorseful; he squeezed her hand and intertwined their fingers. He turned to look at Heero to see that he was now sitting up against the wall and cupping his mouth.

"We're through Yuy. I don't want to ever see you again. Hilde wasn't the one to blame for this-you are. She can love me anywhere and anytime without looking over her shoulder as if she were embarrassed to be with me. I want you to pack your shit and get the fuck out." He began walking towards the entrance to the apartment with Hilde in tow before he stopped and threw over his shoulder, "Just so you know, I only stayed with you because the sex was good." He walked out of the apartment without a second glance.

Heero sat where he was before getting a burst of strength from somewhere and getting up. He continued walking until he reached the closet, pulling out a small duffel bag he placed it on the bed and began to pack all his belongings, which wasn't very much.

After he got all his belongings together he grabbed the handle and took one last look at the bedroom that he and Duo had shared for a year. He slowly walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, grabbed his keys and wallet off the counter, and walked out of the apartment.

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

Quatre slowly sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He wondered what had woken him up when he heard it again. It was some kind of pounding or knocking...someone must be knocking on their door. He squinted his eyes and looked at the bright red alarm clock that read 3:23 A.M. He turned over and nudged Trowa as he heard the knocking again.

"Trowa, wake up!" He whispered harshly.

Trowa opened one eye and glared at Quatre; "You better be growing another head on your ass to wake me up this early...or late," he grumbled.

Quatre rolled his eyes, "Someone is knocking at the front door, come with me to see who it is."

Trowa frowned, "Who would be knocking on our door this late?"

"I don't know but they're pretty insistent about it."

Trowa sighed loudly and threw the warm comforter off his slim body. He grabbed a tee-shirt and pulled it over his head and boxers. He saw Quatre doing the same and walked out the bedroom door, down the hall, down the stairs, and to the front door.

Trowa cautiously opened the front door to see Heero with a bloody lip. He heard Quatre gasp and immediately ushered Heero in.

"Oh, Heero! What happened to you? No, don't talk, you might hurt your lip. Oh my goodness, hurry up and come in!" Quatre grabbed Heero's arm and took him into the downstairs bathroom where they had the first aid kit. He tended to Heero's lip while Trowa went to heat water for tea. When Quatre was finished with Heero he brought him into the living room and sat him on the couch while he sat on the coffee table in front of him. Trowa brought in the tea, gave the mug to Heero and sat next to Quatre on the table. Heero nodded his thanks and took a small sip of the warm, green liquid.

"What happened to you," Quatre hesitantly asked.

Heero stared down at his herbal tea while he recalled the events of evening. He told the story from where he had yelled at Hilde to where Duo had hit him and told him to scram. He also told them that he had no where else to go and very little money so he came here.

When he looked up at them he noticed a strange look on their faces, it kind of looked like...guilt? He saw Quatre bite his lip and Trowa turned his head which peaked his curiosity.

"What's wrong?" He asked quietly feeling a sense of dread wash over him.

They both shook their head and Quatre stuttered out, "T-This wasn't supposed to h-  
happen...he told us ... we can't..."

"I don't understand what you're saying. Spit it out already! Tell me!" Heero spoke harshly.

Quatre shook his head and Trowa stayed quiet.

"Please!" 'What is going on around here,' he thought.

Trowa cleared his throat nervously, "Heero...we-we knew that Duo was sleeping with Hilde...behind your back.

Heero stared at Trowa.

Quatre rushed to put in, "He said that he wasn't sure about his love for you and he wanted to be sure. We didn't know that it would lead to this, honest!"

He was shocked, to say the least. Why was this happening to him? Why were his friends-no these _people_ doing this to him? He continued to listen to Quatre as he began to stutter again.

"B-But, he said that he would s-stop Heero. I swear to you! H-he never meant to hurt you...we never meant to h-hurt you."

Heero was so engrossed in the thoughts swarming in his head that he was surprised to feel something wet roll down his cheek. He swiped his finger over it carelessly before setting down the cup of tea and standing.

"Everyone knew except me, didn't they?" He questioned lightly.

Both ex-Gundam Pilots looked up at him and nodded slowly.  
Heero nodded to himself and slowly stood up. He started towards the door when he felt Quatre grab at his wrist.

"Please Heero, why don't you stay here with us? I know that you are really upset with us but..."

"I'm not upset, Quatre. I can't really be...the only reason that I would get upset was if you were my friends but you aren't...you never really were. The only reason that you kept me around during the war was because I was an essential...a weapon." He whispered.

He shook off Quatre's hand and reached into his pocket for his keys. He took off his car key and alarm and handed them over to Quatre. "These are yours," he gave Quatre the keys and walked towards the door.

"Please Heero, just stay for a while or at least take the keys back. You can't get very far without a car and I hate to think of you out there without...something." It was Trowa's turn to persuade Heero to stay.

Heero kept walking but replied, "Then don't think of me." And with that, Heero Yuy walked out of their lives.

Chapter 1 revised and lookin' kinda nice...NEXT!


	2. Chapter 2

Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Chapter 2

* * *

SIX YEARS LATER ON EARTH... 

"Miss Relena, no disrespect when I say this but we want 01 and we want him now." Senator Dockson replied and other politicians in the conference room nodded their head in accord.

Relena sighed and took off her reading glasses, she could steadily feel a headache coming on and knew that it would be a bitch to deal with. She wanted out of the conference ASAP; they had been discussing the same topic for over five hours without a break. The air conditioner broke three hours before and it was getting to be eighty-five degrees outside and ninety inside.

Relena picked up a stack of papers and began to fan herself while she spoke tiredly, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I know exactly what you want and I want it too but it just isn't possible..."

"Miss Relena, I don't think that you grasp this situation as strongly as the rest of us," Dockson cut through. "We have had this reunion, get together or function, whatever you want to call it, for five years now and have all our pilots show up except one. Pilot 01 is the only one of our pilots that has not shown up and people are getting a bit testy. I have many people emailing my office or calling in like it's a damn radio station and questioning where 'the other pilot' is."

Relena had, had enough of Senator Dockson. He had been rude to her since they had met and she wondered if it had something to do with women handling power at the same level or higher as men. She nastily replied, "So Mr. Dockson, you only want 01 to get rid of all the people that are calling you? I, myself, find that a bit selfish."

Dockson frowned and was about to reply when Ms. Swib hastily cut in; "Miss Relena, another reason that we would like 01 is because we noticed recently that after the third year of not showing there had been a steady decrease of people coming, as well." Ms. Swib was one of the people that helped with creating the reunion.

Another person who helped was Mr. JoHansen, and he spoke up as well, "But the whole reason that we decided to do this is to commemorate our soldiers, look back at the times that we had during the wars whether they be good or bad, and somehow laugh. If you have gone to Hell and back during the war and, no doubt, had more bad times then good, you can reflect on the good times and share them with others who have gone through the same."

Relena took a moment to think and knew that they were right. Some people may find their yearly reunion to be soothing and in some way, therapeutic. She couldn't let down her people and so was then forced to agree.

"All right, I see your point. It won't be easy so don't put out a date; the first thing we have to do is locate him. You know that we haven't thought about his feelings towards this; he may be busy or something."

Dockson rolled his eyes and began to stack his papers together. "If he is busy, then you'll just have to persuade him. I can't honestly think of someone who would be too busy to show up for something of this importance."  
Relena shook her head and sighed.

Carter Boykins spoke, "Who are you going to get to help you?"

"Well, I was going to have the Preventers help me. They are very experienced in this sort of thing, as you all know, so I thought it smart to go with them. I also have a few agents in mind to help."

Boykins nodded, "That sounds good."

Relena stood up and gathered her things together, "Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, if there are no more questions, then we are done."

Everyone nodded and clapped briefly before gathering their things and walking out the room. As Dockson walked by he mumbled, "Good Job."

Relena snorted and finished piling her papers into her briefcase. She knew that he was being sarcastic so didn't respond to his remark. She walked out the room and shut the door. She took a moment to breathe deep the cool, air conditioned, air before walking over to her secretary.

"Janet, cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day and if anyone calls for me, just tell them they can reach me on my cell."

"Yes, Miss Peacecraft," Janet nodded her blonde head and quickly set to work.

Relena thanked her kindly then made her way to the elevators. Once they opened she noticed that Tad, one of her colleagues, was in the elevator reading over various documents.

He smiled, "Going down?"

"Yes, I am." They made small talk before Tad came to the second floor and Relena was left alone once again. She leaned against the wall and thought, 'This is not going to be easy.'

It wasn't until _he_ had left that Relena got all the information. She was the only one who had no idea about what was going on between Heero, Duo and Hilde since she had to go away on a business trip that particular time period.

When Relena found out she was furious with everyone, especially Duo. Relena had admitted to herself, long before, that Heero would never love her but that didn't mean she still couldn't have feelings for him. She was heartbroken for a while but then got together with Dorothy. She didn't really talk to any of them for almost two weeks and she could've gone longer but they were very insistent on getting to better terms with her.

She came out of her musings with a start and looked to see the elevator doors open. She shook her head and sighed heavily. She walked through the lobby and out the doors towards her car. She got into her Convertible, revved the engine and took out her cell phone. She called Preventers HQ and requested a small conference with some particular agents. Once the conference was set she hit the 'end' button and sped towards HQ.

* * *

"I wonder who called us here?" Wufei questioned.

"Well, we will soon find out won't we?" Duo stated irritably.

"What the hell is your problem?" Wufei looked over at Duo who was frowning down at his hands.

Quatre frowned, "Yeah, you've been moping about all morning, what's wrong? "

Trowa looked Duo over quietly and raised his eyebrow in quiet inquiry.

Duo sighed and ran a hand through his long, chestnut colored, bangs and said, "I was about to go to that new pizza place down the road and I had a coupon for a free pizza."

"Oh my God," Wufei mumbled before turning around in his swivel chair.

Duo ignored Wufei and continued, "And the bad part is the coupon expired because they said that they were only giving away the pizzas in lunch hours and their lunch hours were from 11 to 3."

They all turned their heads and saw the clock hit 4:03.

Quatre frowned, "I don't understand. Why didn't you just go earlier?"

Duo sighed, sometimes Quatre was five pennies short of a nickel. "I didn't go earlier because I wasn't hungry earlier...duh!"

They all sighed and rolled their eyes but looked up startled by the new voice. "Well, then Maxwell, that seems to be a mistake on your part."

Duo smiled and laughed charmingly, "I should've known; you're the one who set up this conference, aren't you?"

"Yes sir," she replied. She thanked the young officer that had escorted her and walked into the room. She made her way to an empty chair and sat down; she sighed loudly which blew her bangs up.

"Long day?" Quatre questioned. He knew very well the stress of trying to meet everyone's needs and wants. It was a tough job but no one had any doubt that Relena Peacecraft 1 couldn't get the job done...well no one except for a certain someone.

"Long week actually." She noticed the confused stares and began. It was going to be very hard but she knew that with the help of the young men in front of her she would be able to successfully locate 01. From what she knew, the men in front of her knew nothing of the demand for 01. She knew that they would all be reluctant but...it had to be done.

"Okay, I want you to hear me out before you say anything, all right?" Once they nodded she began, "It has come to our attention that, slowly, people are starting to skip out on the yearly reunion. By skipping out I mean that they no longer come or want to have anything to do with the it unless something happens. That something is if we have Pilot 01 attend to our celebrations. The people are starting to get upset that we have every pilot except for 01."

She took a breath and continued, "What I need the Preventers to do is to find 01 and persuade him to come here. I know that it won't be easy but I will even allow you to offer money to him...it is very important that we have him at the reunion this year and hopefully, the ones to come." She closed her mouth and looked over each of the young men.

Quatre cleared his throat, "So you would like us to find him and bring him back so that he can go to the reunion? Do I have it right?"

Relena nodded, "Pretty much, yes. I know this may sound a bit strange to you but this is for the good of Earth. We, as individuals, would like to thank the heroes for saving us and with that statement we want to say 'thank you' to ALL our heroes."

"I don't see how 'this is for the good of our Earth.' How does having him there help others?" Wufei questioned.

"It helps others because our Reunion is sort of like...healing therapy for some people. I know it may be asking a lot..."

"It's asking a helluva lot," concluded Trowa.

"What makes you think he even wants to come? I'm sure that, wherever he is, he has seen the reunions or heard of them from press and TV." Despite what he just said Wufei knew why the public needed 01 but he just couldn't bring himself to fully understand it. He, under no means necessary, wanted to go and get him because of the 'incident' that had happened 6 years prior...he didn't think that anyone did.

"That is kind of why, if worst comes to worst, I want you to offer him a sum of money and by that maybe..." Poor Relena was cut off again.

"So you want us to bribe him? That doesn't seem very...right." Quatre said.

Throughout the whole conversation Duo had sat very still, head down, staring at his hands in his lap. He finally spoke up, "Relena, let's say that we give him the benefit of the doubt and for some _crazy _reason he hasn't heard of the reunion. What makes you think that he would want to come here? We all know what happened a couple years back, no need for me to remind anyone, obviously. I'm very sure that he wants nothing to do with us and I totally understand that...I think that we should consider his feelings and respect his wishes."

Relena sadly stared at Duo and sighed. "You guys, I _know_ what happened and I _know_ that this is very hard for you to even consider but...I'm asking you to think about the other people who NEED to see him and maybe have a talk with him, as well. I don't expect you to understand their wishes, needs and wants...sometimes we can barely understand our own."

"Relena, you know that we would do anything to help you but this...this is too much. We can't just go up to him and say, 'Hi, how ya doing? I know that we betrayed you and everything but why don't you just forget about all that and come to our party that we're throwing for the wars.'"

Relena smiled briefly towards Trowa; "If it were my choice I would have the reunion go on without him but you see...it just isn't up to me."

Each ex-pilot looked toward their Queen and thought for a moment. They all knew that it wasn't exactly up to her; in the long run she is just a referee making sure all sides get their equal turn. They all mentally sighed and gathered any strength they had for their upcoming battle.

* * *

DOWNTOWN L1...

"Hey, Cotton Tail! Can I get fries with that shake? " He smiled lecherously while his friends laughed drunkenly.

"What are we, in the 5th grade," Heero inquired to himself. He mentally cursed his outfit that resembled a Play Boy Bunny but the difference was that on Heero, he had a small vest that stopped mid-chest showing off his tight abs and tight boy shorts that left nothing to the imagination complete with a fluffy, white bunny tail in the back.

He sighed but turned around, put on a sexy smile and swayed his hips enticingly as he made his way over to the table of old men who were way too drunk. When he reached the table, he set down his tray of empty cups and asked over the loud music, "What can I get you boys tonight?"

They all snickered while the man in the middle addressed him again. "You can give me about 30 minutes in the next alley."

Heero glared, "Personally, I don't fuck men over 50," he looked over the man which was about head to chest because of the high table, "and you don't look like a man that can hold for 30 whole minutes. The most I would give you is 5 minutes. Now, I'm going back to work and you had better not call me anymore obscenities from across the room." He added sweetly, "Thank you for getting your entertainment at G-Spot and I hope you have a wonderful evening."

Heero turned around and walked away only to be grabbed roughly by the wrist. He growled and turned around only to have to look up and stare into blazing black eyes. Heero swallowed when he saw the very pissed off expression that Johnny was wearing.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Johnny asked gruffly. He gripped Heero's arm tighter and snarled down at him.

Heero gulped and shakily replied, "The guy was being a complete ass. Now, let go you're causing a scene."

Johnny looked up to see other patrons and workers look towards them. He glared at them all before they immediately turned back to what they were previously doing. Johnny leaned down and whispered harshly, "Follow me."

Johnny walked in strides towards the back room while Heero stumbled after him. Johnny led Heero towards an old beaten, black door and walked in. Heero hesitantly followed before Johnny turned a menacing gaze towards Heero and looked him over. "Put that tray down before you break my damn china." It was sad but Johnny called all his shot glasses his china.

Heero carefully placed the dishes on a nearby stand and noticed his hands were trembling lightly. He cursed himself and balled his hands into fists to stop the tremors. 'Stop being such a little girl and straighten up. You're tougher than this; don't let this sad excuse of a man throw you around like some rag doll, stand up...' He wasn't able to finish his sentence because of the stinging slap that was delivered to his right cheek.

Heero clenched his teeth and turned blazing blue eyes towards the man in front of him. "I told you to never _ever_..." Once again he was interrupted as a slap was delivered to the same cheek. He wiped the blood that seeped out of his mouth. He felt the tears stinging the back of his eyes and blinked rapidly...he wouldn't let them fall-not this time. This had happened many times before and sometimes he fought back, other times he didn't but there was usually one recurring outcome-him on the floor with some bodily injury. He didn't feel like dealing with his bullying shit so he kept quiet and put his head down.

As if seeing Heero's defeat Johnny smiled wickedly and stepped closer to him. "That's right you little shit, shut the fuck up. I own you; what I say goes. You do I what I say, when I say it, understand? None of this talking back nonsense that you like to play every now and then. You pull this shit again, and I'll kill you. Now what is your job?"

"To make the customers happy," Heero replied automatically.

"That's right, so if they say they want a lap dance, you give em' a lap dance. If they want you to strip, you strip without hesitation. And if they say they want to fuck you in the next alley for 30 minutes you damn well better say yes and lead the fucking way, understand?"

"Yes Johnny," he spoke obediently.

"Good," he smiled before roughly grabbing Heero's chin and swallowing his mouth into a brutal kiss.

Heero didn't fight as Johnny raped his mouth over and over.

Once he was finished he pushed Heero away roughly and smiled through yellow teeth. "Don't go home too early tonight," and with that he left.

Heero breathed out before wiping a hand across his mouth. He slowly made his way over to the dressing rooms and sat himself down at his station. He looked in the mirror to see his reddened cheek and cursed loudly. He grabbed at his blush viciously and applied it to his left cheek so that it would even out and look like he did it on purpose. As he set down the small case a girl beautiful girl in a neon pink string bikini rushed into the room.

"Heero! There you are, are you okay? I saw what happened outside and..." Lina trailed off as she rushed to Heero and noticed the bright red cheeks. She cursed softly before running a hand through chocolate brown locks.

"He is such a fucking push over. I swear someone bigger and tougher is goin' to come along and knock him on his ass. And I will personally fuck the guy as a reward." She spoke looking into the mirror at Heero's reflection.

Heero gently pushed her away. "I'm fine, Lina. It's not nearly as bad as it usually is so don't worry. Now, go away, you're making me feel nauseous."

She smiled softly, "Yeah, yeah, yeah Mr. Tough Guy. Whatever you say. Hey, are you comin' back out?"

"Yeah, in a minute, why?" He questioned as he tidied his hair in the mirror.  
"You can dance with me the rest of the night. Johnny won't dare touch me, Killer made sure of that so you'll be safe while you're with me," she ended softly.

Heero smiled gratefully. "Thanks Lina, I really appreciate it."

She blushed and waved her hand, "No problem, Sugar. You just owe me by taking me to that new Italian restaurant down on 22nd."

He mock sighed heavily, "Fine, deal."

She squealed happily and grabbed his arm while making her way to the door. "I can't wait! I heard they have the BEST lasagna in like...the whole world. Um...not including Italy or...wherever else but yummo! Tomorrow night, oh my gosh you _have _to take..."

Heero sighed, this time for real, as Lina proceeded to talk his ear off about how he just _had_ to take her to the damn resteraunt.

* * *

Chapter 2 is done...NEXT! 


	3. Chapter 3

Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Chapter 3

* * *

He ran down the hall like a bat out of hell; bumping rather viciously into as many people or objects he could. He didn't notice and he didn't care, he could always apologize later but now was not the time. Right now, he had a job to do and that job was to get the information in his hand to the rightful owners ASAP. 

He made a sharp left and ran into Mrs. Baker, who was an elderly filer for Preventers. Rather than taking time to make sure she was on her feet and not hurt he muttered loudly, "Move outta the way ya old bag," and continued on his way. He ran down the hall, twisting and turning as he went to escape any other casualties. He quickly made another left, ran down five doors and came a door that had the word 'PRIVATE' taped onto it and 'KNOCK BEFORE ENTERING.' But he, of course, took no heed of the sign and burst into the room.

10 pairs of eyes whirled around in their chairs and glared at him rather nastily. He gulped loudly before taking a deep breath and walking into the conference room.

"Shut the door, you idiot," Commander Chang hissed.

"S-Sorry sir," and he went to do as told.

"You are supposed to knock before entering and I'm pretty confident in assuming you are able to read a sign that BIG..." Trowa trailed off.

"Yes sir, I can but I have some very important news." He shivered noticeably when dangerous amethyst eyes turned his way.

"And what 'important news' would that be, Arnold?" Duo asked calmly although his eyes told another story.

"Sir, we have a lead."

Dorothy knocked once before she entered the large conference room. She saw many red rimmed eyes turn her way and smiled sadly. She knew that it was tough on a lot of the men in this room but who to do a better job than the Preventers. Preventer officers weren't known to get a full night's sleep, anyway.

She walked into the center of the room and sat one of the KFC bags on the table. "Come and get it guys," and immediately she was in the middle of a war between who could get their food the fastest. She held up her hands with the other bag and walked over to a smaller table in the corner of the room that was next to several computers. She jiggled the bag a bit and made her way to an empty chair that had been saved by lover.

She sat the bag on the table and watched as the men took their respected food with subdued excitement. Dorothy turned to Relena to watch her get her food but found that she was looking at her quite strangely.

"What?"

"Where's your food? Aren't you hungry?"

"Oh, I ate on the way here, couldn't hold myself." Dorothy smiled sheepishly as Relena rolled her eyes.

"MM, this is so good," Quatre said around a mouthful of chicken and biscuit.

"You aren't kidding," Wufei remarked around his own chicken leg.

"It's either that or we are very hungry," stated Trowa as he took a big bite out of his biscuit that was filled with grape jelly.

"I think that it's both," Duo...said? You couldn't really tell because he had so much food in his mouth. It was to the point where his cheeks were puffed to their limit but he was still shoving food in his mouth.

"Ew, Duo you spit food everywhere," Quatre laughed. He pointed to the bits of biscuit fluff and half eaten chicken.

"You're one to talk, ya little porker." He smiled as he noticed that Quatre was blushing a lovely shade of red.

Everyone at the small table chuckled at the two's antics before focusing on their food once again.

"So he's on L1?" They questioned with surprise very evident.

"Yes and from the looks of it he has been there for about...four years."

"But he is on...L1," Relena hesitantly repeated the question.

Richardson looked at her and nodded slightly.

"Okay," she whispered and as she carefully sat down she noticed the others were slowly following her lead.

It was pretty...strange that after two months of searching they had finally found Heero Yuy. Not strange as in 'something bad might be going on' but strange as in...strange. It would make sense that Heero would go back to there; it's his home colony for Christ's Sake! That should've been one of the first places they should've searched.

After a few moments Wufei cleared his throat and stood up. He turned to face the other officers; "Right then, ladies and gentlemen this is the moment that we have all been waiting for." He took a breath and let his words sink in a bit before continuing, "Okay, I need Samson and Davis to go with Richardson and find out where 01 stays, where he works, and any other possible places of where he might hang out. You two over there, I will need..." As Wufei began to give orders the others stood up and began to help as well...except for Duo.  
Duo sat slumped forward in the chair with his braid falling over shoulder and into his lap where his hands were clapsed tightly. 'Well, ready or not Heero, we're coming to get ya.' He sighed and looked up only to spot Dorothy staring at him with worry filling her baby blue eyes. He smiled softly and gave a thumbs up, to let her know he was alright, before joining the others.

* * *

Not much to change there...gettin' closer to the new stuff. NEXT! 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Chapter 4

* * *

"Bye Heero! Don't forget our dinner date tomorrow!" Lina yelled as she and her boyfriend, Killer, walked down the street.

Heero resisted the urge to roll his eyes and simply waved goodbye.

"You ready, Kid?"

Heero jumped at the low sound and spun around to see a man standing behind him.

"Jesus H. Christ, Mick! You scared the hell out of me!" Heero picked up his fallen duffel bag as he glared at the tall bodyguard.

Mick chuckled deeply and took a long drag off his cigarette. "Obviously." He tipped his head in the direction of Heero's apartment, "Ready?"

Heero nodded and began walking with Mick not to far behind. They walked a couple of blocks in silence before Mick finally spoke, "So you good or what?"

Heero understood what he was asking and sighed. Lina and Killer had the biggest mouths around. He knew, without a doubt, that Lina had informed Killer of what had transpired between himself and Johnny and then Killer took it upon himself to inform Mack.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's not that big of a deal..." he trailed off.

Mick snorted before throwing out his cigarette blunt, reaching into his coat pocket and bringing out a new one. He relit it, and took a long drag before answering, "Why did you take so long to get your stuff tonight?"

Despite what Johnny had said about earlier about him staying late, he didn't have to. It might've been because Killer had waited in the dressing as both him and Lina got their stuff together. No doubt Johnny was pissed but he'd never say anything to Killer. No, nothing like _that_ had happened tonight. The only reason it took a little longer for him to get his stuff was because Jay, another dancer, had borrowed his gel and glitter and he had wanted it back. Heero proceeded to tell Mick this.

"Oh, alright," he spoke before saying, "because if Johnny would've tried something _this_ time I would've..."

"You wouldn't have done anything because if you would have you would be out on your ass with no job. That's the exact reason why I haven't done anything, because I need this job. And since we _both_ need this job we will continue to do nothing except what Johnny tells us to do." Heero spoke surely as he quickly crossed the street.

"Kid, you are too smart for your own good. But I'm serious, the next time that prick tries it again I'm doing some serious damage, understand?"

Heero looked up at the bulky bodyguard and smiled softly. He knew that Mick's heart was in the right place but he wouldn't allow the man to lose his job because of his own altercations with their boss. "Thanks Mick," he smiled sincerely up at the bodyguard.

He smirked down at him, "No prob, Kid. Gotta look after you since you're such a fuckin' push over and everything, ya know?"

Heero laughed, "Oh yeah."

Heero and Mick came to another intersection and waited for the light to turn red so they could cross. While they were waiting a small blue car rolled up and shouted through a slightly open, dirty window, "Hey there, hot stuff! I'll give you $50 for a fuck in that alley."

"Fuck off, loser." Heero yelled back and tightened his jacket around himself.

"Ah come on, sweet thing, I'll give it to ya real nice and..."

"He said fuck off, asshole! Now take that hoopty and move along before I fucking help you." Mick shouted loudly.

Thankfully the old pervert got the hint and drove on to find some other company for the night.

Heero sighed and looked up at Mick. "I bet you feel real hot right now, don't you?"

"Damn right squirt, they know not to fuck with me. 6'4 and 255 lbs. soaking wet! Let's go!" He spoke excitedly and whooped loudly.

Heero shook his head and couldn't help but let a small laugh leak out. He noticed the red light and continued the track home.

Mick spoke again, "Nah, but seriously no one has ever messed with me because I was always careful. In a place like this Kid, you can't risk making mistakes, that one mistake might just take your life." Mack looked down at Heero and took another drag off his cigarette.

"Tell me about it..." Heero mumbled as he let his mind wander back, to years ago though they felt like a whole lifetime ago.

Mick heard Heero and sighed. He noticed how he got a far away look in his eyes and immediately felt bad. He knew all about Heero's past because the young man had confided in him when the demons had become too much for him to handle. He slung a heavy arm over his shoulders as a sign for support.

"Well, here we are," Mick spoke as they came to Heero's building. "You need me to walk you up?"

"No thanks, I'm okay. Thank you for walking me home, I..."

Mick waved his hand in dismissal and flicked his cigarette to the ground. "Think nothing of it Kid. Just take care of yourself, you hear? I'll see you tomorrow."

Heero gave him a genuine smile before nodding and walking into the lobby of the building.

Mick stepped back into the street to get a full look at the building and waited until he saw Heero's light come on before he made his decent back to the club to have a talk to a certain someone.

Niether Mick nor Heero had any idea that from the club to the apartment building that they were being followed.

Green eyes that were encased in a shadow of black watched as the bulky bodyguard walked back the way he came. The wind ruffled long, black bangs just as a slim hand lifted up to thin lips that held a small talking device. The pale thumb pushed a big red button before a deep voice stated, "I have located 01..."

* * *

LATER THAT NIGHT AT A SECRET BASE IN L1...

"All right boys, here's the plan that Commander Chang wants us to carry out: tomorrow night at approximately 09:30 P.M. is when we will strike. That is the time that 01 leaves his home to go to the club where he works. We will have men set up near his apartment and on my mark I want Rex, Granger, Luke and Adams to grab hold of 01 and..."

"But sir," Granger spoke up, "why do we need four men to take down this one kid? We've seen pictures of him from the wars and I don't think that he's grown much, take notice of his race. It shouldn't take all of us to take down this small runt."

"Granger, you just do as you're told, you hear me? Orders are we need to take more precautions with 01, he has a reputation of being quite difficult and can pull a trick on you in the blink of an eye. Now, I want Frans, Jones, Pins and Drake to take care of the bodyguard that we've been told about. You heard what Ricks said, the guy's bigger than all of us and could probably take us all out one by one. Stick together and don't be little bitches! You fuckheads better not mess this up, it's an easy assignment and if we do this quickly and efficiently we may just get bonuses. Now, review your parts until you know it in your sleep. We will meet again at 0800 hours. Dismissed!" Captain Brawnsfield watched as his men filed out one by one and as the last one flew past him he sighed deeply. He muttered to himself, "This better not fuck up."

* * *

BACK ON EARTH...

Duo sat up suddenly and looked around to see what had woken him up from his deep slumber. He sat very still and jumped slightly when he heard a faint whining that was coming from outside his room. "Dammit..." He muttered darkly as he through the covers off himself and padded bare feet towards the door that led to the guest room of Quatre's house. He opened the door slightly to let in the nuisance and shut it quietly, padding back towards the bed. He looked back expectantly towards the doorway and sighed, "you have two seconds to get over here before I take you back outside where you belong...and in the dark, all by yourself."

A large black beast made its way over to the large king size bed and hopped on it making the bed shift down considerably. He placed his head on his master's lap and shifted his big bottom until he got comfortable with his heavy tail lazily wagging along the comforter.

Duo grunted loudly as the beast got comfortable next to him but actually it was on him. Though he was mad that he had woken up after he had finally gotten to sleep he smiled slightly and scratched behind the large ears. "You dumb dog, Quatre is gonna kill me when he finds out that I let you sleep up here with me...again." The only response Duo got was a soft snoring that told him his Mastiff/German Shepherd mix had fallen asleep.

He lay himself down onto the pillows and looked out the window at the clear blue sky. 'I have a feeling that some bad shit is coming, and I know exactly where it's coming from...L1' With that last thought Duo drifted into a restless sleep dreaming of cobalt blue gems.

* * *

It's different...I know. You likey? NEXT! 


	5. Chapter 5

Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Chapter 5

* * *

KNOCK! 

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

KN-"Come in, already!"

Agent Caleb clumsily stumbled into the room and shut the door loudly behind him.

Trowa spoke calmly, "You're late, Agent. Don't let it happen again."

"Yes sir but I..."

"No excuses, sit down."

Agent Caleb then plopped his bony butt into the nearest seat available.

Wufei sighed rudely and asked quite loudly, "May we continue now? Is that okay with everyone in here or are we expecting another interruption? I'm sick and tired of all these fucking disruptions; the next person that so much as _breathes _loud is fired, got it?"

Everyone nodded, in all actuality that really was the first real interruption to happen but today was an important day. Today is the day when they make contact with 01 and persuade him to come down to Earth. Everyone was on edge and it was expected because everything that happened that day had to be just...right.

Wufei looked back at the monitor at the center of the room. "Continue Brawnsfield."

"Thank you, sir. As I said earlier, today is the day we actually touch base with 01. Yesterday I had made the minor mistake of..."

"Mistake," Relena jumped in her chair, "what mistake? You know very well that there is no room for error on your part so..."

"Miss, I understand the full importance of this operation." He put in quickly, "the only mistake that I made was by informing you of his capture on the way to his work. I was just informed that 01 will be taking the night off; he and a co-worker are to dine at a restaurant uptown. It took a little while but we were able to reformulate a plan in accordance to the geography there. Other than that minor detail everything is going rather smoothly. My men are going over their individual duties and preparing themselves as we speak."

Relena had the decency to let a slight blush take over her face because of her outburst. "Very well, Captain. Make this happen. I want no screw ups, that clear?"

He smiled widely, "Crystal, M'am."

"Uh, Captain," Quatre filled in, "I noticed earlier that you said 'capture.' "

"Yes sir, I did," he spoke with a frown of confusion on his face.

"Let me take a moment to remind you, Captain, that this operation is something of a business transaction. Do not mistake this for some 'kill or be killed' mission. You are to calmly and professionally approach 01, talk to him and persuade him to come to Earth." Quatre looked hard into the eyes of Captain Brawnsfield to let him know that he was in no way kidding around.

"But sir, I was told that we..."

"I don't care what you were told and who told you. I'm telling you now, you are to talk him into coming here. Bribe him with money for all I care but you will not, and I repeat, _not_ physically harm 01. Understood?"

Captain Brawnsfield looked dejectedly down at his hands while replying, "Sir, yes sir."

Quatre nodded, "Good; we expect to get a definite play by play when you start to make things happen tonight, alright?"

"Sir, I wouldn't think of it any other way." He spoke the words clearly but Quatre, along with others, had a feeling he was thinking otherwise. They'd have to keep a special eye on him.

Quatre began to gather his papers together and noticed the people on his right were doing the same. He looked down the table, "Anything else?"

Wufei shook his head, "Nope, I think we've got everything for now."

"Just remember Captain," Relena spoke once again, "we want an accurate and detailed play by play. Keep your communicator frequencies open and your walkie talkie charged and ready to go. Don't disappoint us."

"I'd never dream of it, Ma'am. Brawnsfield out," and he disconnected the video conference call. Once the screen was black he fell back into his chair with a heavy sigh. 'They take the fun outta everything,' he thought before pushing all thoughts from his mind and mentally preparing himself for what was about to go down.

* * *

" $100 says he does the exact opposite of what we just told him," Trowa remarked as they all piled into the elevator.

"What do you mean," both Dorothy and Relena questioned as they made room for the others.

Wufei smirked, "Brawnsfield is known for reliving the 'glory days' every time he gets a field mission."

Once everyone was situated, Quatre pressed the 5th floor button repeatedly. "I don't know, I think he might listen to us this time. I'm sure he's tired of getting suspended every other week."

Trowa chuckled, "Your speech was good but it wasn't _that_ good. I seriously doubt he's going to listen to you, sorry Q." Seeing Quatre's crestfallen expression he added, "Your speech really was good though, I know how proud of it you were."

Quatre stepped off the elevator saying, "You got that fucking right."

And for some reason everyone burst out laughing...well, all but one.

* * *

DING DONG! 

DING DONG!

DING DONG!

"I'm coming, just hold on." Heero hurriedly wrapped a towel around his waist and jogged towards the front door. Running a hand through his wet hair he checked the peep hole briefly before unlocking the door and opening it.

"Gosh, what took you so long? I was waiting out there for hours, I swear! Years I tell ya! Lordy, how old am I now? 57? Heero you really need to pick up the pace when you..."

Heero rolled his eyes as Lina continued to babble on and on about how she was waiting at the door for a total of 33 seconds.

"Oh, wow you aren't dressed yet?" Lina concluded as she got a full look at a slightly damp, towel clad Heero Yuy.

Heero looked down at himself in shock, "Oh wow, would ya look at that..." He mumbled to himself at his apparel.

Lina laughed and punched him lightly in the arm before finding her own way to his bedroom.

He secured and locked the door before following. "Lina, why _are_ you so early? You said you wouldn't be here until 8 o'clock and its only...6:30," he continued after a quick glance to his clock on the dresser.

She looked up at him from her seat on his bed and smiled. "I know but I just couldn't help it. I totally watched what I ate today because I wanted to be ready for tonight and I guess I was really a good watcher because I'm starving."

"God, Lina it isn't that serious." Heero said as he put on his lotion and deodorant.

"It is to me," she said as she got up and began looking through his closet, "did you know they had a _buffet_? Oh, I can not wait! I'm going to pig out! And that's a fact."

Heero couldn't help but chuckle at her obvious enthusiasm over dinner tonight. In all reality he was even pretty excited to go. The restaurant, Buon Alimento, had got nothing but great reviews and their food was supposed to be so good that it got to the point where they had to _kick_ their customers out. That little story was most likely made up but if they had made up a story like that then the food must be good. All in all, it sounded like heaven-Italian food style.

"So what are you going to wear tonight?" Lina asked distractedly as she leafed through his clothes.

"Nothing even close to what you're wearing, that's for damn sure." Heero remarked as he looked at her body encased in a pink belly shirt, a short, very tight denim skirt with pink stilettoes.

She huffed loudly, "And just what's wrong with my outfit?"

"It's just dinner Lina, we're not going to work remember?" He teased lightly as he saw her aggravation.

"Fuck you, Yuy. It's smouldering outside and I'm just doing the human thing and keeping myself cool."

"And thoroughly molested by every person you walk past," he added and laughed loudly as she through a pillow that hit him square in the chest.

She smiled, "Whatever." She went back to her outfit scouting job and was very close to the end of the closet when 3 things suddenly caught her eye. She squealed cutely and held them up for Heero to see, "How about..."

"No," Heero said forcibly.

"Oh come _on_ Heero! This is to die for! And I haven't seen you in this for...I don't know how long." She whined while shaking the clothes up and down.

"And it'll be even longer because I'm not wearing them. I refuse, " he put his hands on his towel covered hips and set his eyes in a glare.

"Oh stop that pouting."

Heero's eyes nearly shot off his face. Pouting, his glare was certainly _not_ a pout; what was she talking about. "Wha..."

"They're not even that bad," she continued with no notice, "just wear them. They look really good on you." She laid the clothes in question on the bed. The outfit consisted of a long sleeve mesh shirt that was tight fitting, a tight black tank top and very short, very _tight_ black shorts that left absolutely nada to the imagination.

"Hell no and I put my foot down," which he did.

Lina held her hands up, "Okay, okay how about this: I will pay for cab fair, dinner AND leave a generous tip." She bargained playfully and almost jumped for joy as she saw him thinking about it. She quickly added, "And I'll dance for Mr. Krieger for you for a full month."

"Deal," Heero said quite quickly. One night in _that_ for a full month of freedom from that molester sounded great to Heero, he quickly accepted before she realized what she was saying.

"Great!" She replied happily and handed the clothes to Heero before making her way to the dresser. She opened the top drawer while speaking, "I want you to put on those clothes and when you're finished," she took a breath while continuing to explore the vast space of Heero's drawer, "call me and I'll help you with your hair. Also you'll probably have to wear your black boots with this outfit. You don't really have anything else to wear and..."

"Exactly what are you doing," he asked genuinely interested.

She popped her head up and smiled, "Oh! I'm looking for a thong."

He frowned, "Why..."

She elaborated, "I'm looking for a thong...for you."

Heero could only sweat drop.

* * *

Oh my goodness, my hands are cramping like hell! Any remedies? And, oh yeah, you like it? 


	6. Chapter 6

Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Chapter 6

* * *

"Come on, Heero!" Lina yelled as she made a mad dash through the apartment lobby to the waiting cab outside.

Heero ran as fast as he could in his 3-inch heel boots as he possibly could without risking himself bodily injury. Really, there was no reason to rush; the cab sure as hell wasn't going anywhere and the restaurant didn't close until 1:00 in the morning and it was only 8:03.

"Move your ass, Yuy!" She yelled as she slid into the yellow taxi, "we're late enough as it is...MOVE IT!"

Heero shuffled faster and finally made it to the car. He got himself situated as Lina told the directions to the driver.

"Great, now we're gonna be late. Thanks," she huffed and fell back into the seat.

"Late for what?" Heero questioned loudly. "The damn restaurant doesn't close until 1 o'clock in the morning and its only 8:05. What the _hell _is the big rush?"

Lina could only stare at Heero. "Duh, Heero. Everyone knows that they put out the fresh food for dinner at 8 o'clock. Gosh, you're so friggin' dumb sometimes." She rolled her eyes and turned to the window.

Heero then decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if he sat on his hands for the rest of the ride. If he didn't the unthinkable might happen and he might, _just might_ strangle the _hell_ out of Lina. He blew out harshly and counted to ten...slowly. After he had managed to catch his head a bit he turned to his own window and watched as the sun slowly set.

The 3 occupants of the car had no idea that they were being followed by 3 large black trucks. Each truck had a minimum of 2 cars between them so as to not draw attention to themselves. Inside the first vehicle sat Captain Brawnsfield with his eyes staring intently at the taxi cab just a few cars in front of them.

Suddenly, he saw the cab take a left and turn down an alley. 'What in the hell?' He wondered to himself. "Granger, where the hell are they going?"

Granger looked down at the map sitting in his lap. "It seems like another route to the restaurant."

"You're sure?" He questioned and turned around to look at the officer sitting behind him.

"Yes sir; if you take the left that we just took, head straight down then make a right and then another right at the stop lights we should be coming along the restaurant from the left. This route cuts off about 20 minutes of traffic."

Brawnsfield nodded as he processed the information. 'Not exactly the go-plan be we can work with it.' "Right then, Granger inform the others of our finding but tell them to keep route. It'll look strange with 3 'Burbs following a taxi down an alley."

"Yes sir." He spoke before picking up his headset and relaying the message to the other officers.

"Someone get me HQ," he spoke as an afterthought as they continued to ride along. Not a minute later did he feel a walkie talkie being pushed into his hand. He pressed the big red button to begin communication, "HQ this is Big Brawny. Come in HQ."

**------**

The nearest person, which happened to be A.I.T (Agent in Training) Collins picked up the corresponding walkie talkie and pushed his own big red button. "Big Brawny this is HQ. Status?"

Static. "HQ I've located 01 and he is on his way to the blow out. We're tailing him as we speak."

Collins nodded his head. "That's great, Big Brawny. Keep up the good work and keep your lines open. HQ out."

**------**

Brawnsfield didn't bother responding and threw the device down to the floor with disgust. "What do they think this is? A damn daycare? I gotta check up with 'mommy' every time I turn and scratch my ass."

The officers began to chuckle at their captain's words.

Collins looked across the room and caught Duo's eye. He motioned him over and stated, "Sir, Captain Brawnsfield just called and they are now following 01 to the spot."

"That a fact?"

"Yes sir." He nodded.

"Good job, Rookie." He clapped the young man on his back before making his way back towards his station.

"What was that about?" Quatre questioned tiredly as he stared dully at a heap of reports laying in front of him.

"Brawnsfield is currently following 01 to the spot," he paused, "it should be any minute now."

Relena looked up from her own stack of reports and smiled slightly. "I'm sure it'll all fall into place Duo. Everything will work out just fine."

Duo snorted but still smiled gratefully. "I doubt it but whatever you say Princess." He looked around the room, at what had to be at _least _40 people running around with their heads off, and sighed.'Well, it's go time.' "Let's bring 'im home."

**------**

"Oh, wow! I told you Heero, this place is so fucking _nice_." Lina said a little too loudly as the hostess led them towards a table.

Heero blushed slightly at the looks that flew their way after Lina's outburst. He hurriedly sped up to where he was walking beside Lina. "Lower your voice, Lina. You sound..."

"Slightly out of place?" She filled in helpfully.

"No, fucking stupid." Heero smirked at the slightly put out expression and continued to follow the hostess.

"Well, here you are. I hope this seating is to your liking." The hostess, Sandy-they gathered from the name tag, smiled politely.

"This is just fine, thanks." Heero smiled and sat down.

"Yes, thank you." Lina followed.

"Y'all are quite welcome and your server will be right with you to..."

"A server? I thought this was buffet?" Lina cried loudly.

Sandy couldn't help but giggle at the girl's antics. "It is, the server is just here to get you your drinks and any necessities you may need."

"Oh," Lina rightfully blushed.

"Thank you very much," Heero thanked her once more.

Sandy smiled and nodded. "No problem, I hope you two have a wonderful night."

"You too," Lina spoke and turned to find Heero staring dead at her. "What? What did I do now?" She threw her hands in the air.

Heero paused before saying cryptically, "There are no words for you."

She smiled, "Wow, that's..."

"Not a compliment," Heero finished before picking up the small menu for drinks and tuning out the pitiful whining that was located across from him.

**------**

"Sir, that's them." A voice stated to his right.

"Yeah," he agreed. Him and his men were stationed across the street behind a large fountain and trees, no one could see them for they all wore black and green camouflage. "Ready boys," he questioned as he looked through the restaurant window at the couple seated next to it.

"Sir," they all replied affirmatively.

He nodded once before leading off, "then let's go." He walked his men across the street at a red light and onto the paved driveway of the restaurant. He made his way through the entrance and hardly noticed the young hostess' shocked expression or that of the rest of the occupants of the restaurant. He made a direct beeline to the table sitting next to the street window and came to a stop once he was standing behind the young ladies' chair.

Lina felt a large shadow fall over her and frowned. 'The hell,' she thought to herself and took a glance at Heero, what she saw shocked her. Lina saw that Heerohad an unreadable expression on his face and she gulped loudly. 'This is definitely not good,' she thought. Slowly she turned around and almost fainted at the sight. At least 10 big, bulky men were standing behind her dressed in army camouflage with stern looks painted on their faces. Lina got the distinct impression that the men weren't here for the good food. She didn't know just how right she was.

"01, I presume," Brawnsfield stated as he looked upon the young man. The boy was _breathtaking_, and that was putting it very lightly. He was nothing short of sexy deliciousness with his small yet muscular frame encased in a tight black tank top with a long-sleeve mesh shirt covering it. Brawnsfield couldn't help but lean forward slightly as he caught a glimpse of pale thighs; good LORD those shorts of his just _had_ to be illegal in all the colonies and earth. Wow, it looks like he had 2 reasons to pick him up now. 1

Heero slowly looked up at the voice addressing him and felt his heart suddenly make its way into his throat. The leader, he presumed, was at least 6'4 with an impressive set of guns on him, and he wasn't talking about his weapons, although those looked pretty damn impressive as well. Behind him stood a small group of 10, all men, all big and all not so nice looking. 'Damn it,' he swore mentally, 'this can't be good.'

He got his answer. "01, we have strict orders to have you come with us to..."

Heero felt the breath being knocked out of him. No one had called him _that_ for years and he didn't miss it in the least. Bad things happened when he was referred to as that name.'Whothe hell are these people and what do they want? One thing's for sure-I'm goingnowhere with them.' "You're out of your mind, man. I am not going anywhere with you."

Brawnsfield practically smiled. "You are refusing, then?"

"Lookslike it." Heero leaned back in his chair to feign nonchalance. He added after a moment, "And 'strict orders'from who?"

This time Brawnsfield couldn't help but let the smile take over. 'Finally some fun.' "I'm sorry but we can not disclose such information at the moment. We can tell you everything you want to know if you'll just follow us out..."

"Can you not hear or what? No?Then read my fucking lips, G.I. Joe. I. AM. NOT. GOING. ANYWHERE. WITH YOU." When he noticed that "Mr. Joe" and his posse seemed a little amused at his display, he felt cold fear race through his body. Shit, shouldn't they have been just a little intimidated? Heero started as he saw the leader take a step forward and stood up. "Lina, get over here," he spoke gruffly and Lina all but flew out her seat to stand behind him, watching the scene unfold with fear in her eyes.

Brawnsfield took notice of the action and felt his hands start to twitch slightly. His men behind him saw this and thought excitedly, 'Show time.'

"Look, I don't know who you are or where the hell you came from but I'm leaving alright..." Heero cursed himself for sounding scared which he _definitely_ but they didn't need to know that.

"I'm sorry 01 but I can not allow you to do that. We can do this the hard way or the easy way," he looked down his nose at Heero as he cracked his fingers slowly, "I recommend you take the easy way but knowing you...I doubt you'll do that."

"You know me?" Heero asked confused.

"Yep, I know all about you 01. Probably more than you know about your damn self. That's why I know you're not going to cooperate with us and most likely fight back but," he paused, "I want you to know that I'm really, _really_ looking forward to it."

Heero took a step back at his words. "Lina," he whispered.

"Yes," she breathed shakily.

"Run," he breathedbefore grabbing her hand and sprintingin the direction of the kitchen. He ran at top speed, with Lina surprisingly keeping up with him in her stilettoes, and steered them both in-between the buffet tables and other patrons of the restaurant. He bust through the kitchen door just as he heard a gun shot go off and shut it quickly, finding a broom he shoved it through the handle of the door to try to lock the men out and buy them some time.

Heero grabbed at Lina's hand again and ran towards the backdoor in the empty kitchen. He payed a passing thought as to _why_ the kitchen was so empty when he ran into something hard. Just as he entered through the back door he heard Lina scream and felt her hand being ripped out of his. He felt himself lifted off the ground as steely arms wrapped around him tightly; Heero felt old instincts begin to kick in. He worked an arm free and elbowed the man repeatedly in the face until he dropped him. He delivered a mean kick to his head and watched coldly as the man fell to the ground unconscious.

"Heero!" Lina yelled as two men were walking her into a corner. But just as he was going to help her he felt an arm wrap around his chest and a white cloth held against his nose. 'No,' he thought and tried squirming to get the cloth away from his nose; he tried holding his breath but even the ex-Perfect Soldier could only hold his breath for so long. He breathed in the sharp scent and helplessly felt the effects begin to take. Slowly his world began to darken and the last thing he saw was Lina's scared eyes staring into his.

Brawnsfield felt 01 finally slump in his arms and gave a sigh of relief. "Shit, I didn't think the kid was ever gonna go under." He spoke aloud referring the 01's battle with the chloroform. He handed the cloth over to Jones and swung 01 over his shoulders. "Okay, that's it boys. Let's pack it up and get the hell outta here." He started to walk towards the alley entrance but was stopped by Drake.

"Sir, what do we do about the girl?"

Brawnsfield looked towards Drake and saw the young man holding the girl in his arms.

"What happened to her?" He asked once he noticed she was unconscious.

"She just fainted sir, after you took down 01."

"Well, I guess just bring her along. Let the others deal with her, it's not my problem and she's seen too much to just leave her here." He replied indifferent before turning to the rest of them, "Let's go home boys." He continued his way to the entry of the alleyway and quickly jogged across the street hearing his men following him.

He handed 01 to Granger as he got into the driver seat. Once everyone was situated he turned to him, "Granger, tie him up and blindfold him. Radio Drake and tell him to do the same with the girl. Also let them know that we are going straight to the shuttle port and flying our precious luggage home."

"Yes sir," he responded and got to work on tying 01 up. He smirked as a thought came to him, "Too bad we couldn't have a little fun with 'em first, hey Captain."

Brawnsfield laughed out right. "You got that right kid." He started the car and looked in the rear view mirror to see if the other 2 trucks were ready. As he saw the signal, a thumbs up out the window, he put his foot on the gas and sped into traffic, the others not far behind.

Adams spoke up beside him in the passenger seat. "Sir, what about HQ should we inform them of our success?"

"But Adams, how are we to inform them if we don't have our walkie talkies? You know how bad the rush was with going outand retrieving 01, as a matter of fact I do recall seeing them laying on the side of the street, all broken into tinypieces." He said with a sly smile.

Adams, as well as the others, got the hint and promptly through the radios out the windows. The trucks behind them saw and followed in pursuit.

Brawnsfield's loud laugh filled the air as they sped their way to the shuttle port.

* * *

Wow...they finally caught him. You like it?

1 - Get it? Heero's shorts are so short that it's illegal...Brawny is somewhat of an enforcer of the law...illegal...law... Get it? No? Okay bad joke...


	7. Chapter 7

Hola Amigos! How are all yall doing? Well, I just wanted to thank everyone for their reviews and comments. They really help and I appreciate you taking the time to write me something.

CarrotTop - I understand that the action in Chapter 6 sucked ass and I apologize. I'm really not good with action but I am definitely going to try harder and make it more interesting and please don't fret because I definitely won't turn Heero into a "useless sissy" but I'm not quite sure what you mean by making the pilots "idiots" but either way I doubt that will happen.

Yaoi Angel - All I want to say is I LOVE YOU! I totally love all your stories. I've read Traffic like 10 times. I love that fic and hope that you update with a sequel soon.

Okay that's it... to the story!

* * *

Revised: No Matter What

Chapter 7

x1-TaKeN-oVeR

* * *

"There had better be a good god damn reason as to why I've been sitting in this same fucking chair for the past 2 fucking hours." Duo grumbled loudly as he stared down at clenched hands resting on the gray table top. The others weren't surprised by his outburst because the closer the time came to meeting Heero the more talkative and impatient Duo began to be. He was anxious to see his ex-love; it had been 6 years since the last time he'd seen him.

Quatre sighed and swivelled around in his chair slowly. "I don't understand where they could be!" He cried before banging a flat hand on the chair's arm rest. "They should've been here 1 hour and 40 friggin' minutes ago. The shuttle port is nothing but 10 minutes away-20 if there's traffic."

"They've got 5 minutes and 59 seconds before I go and hunt them all down myself." Wufei growled as he cleaned and assembled his hand gun.

"I'll tell you one thing, I will personally see to it that this is Brawnsfield's last field mission for the rest of his natural born life." 1 Trowa stated seriously as he shuffled his papers for the hundredth time.

The four men, along with Relena, Dorothy and other important people, like Senator Dockson, Ms. Swib, and a few agents were currently milling around the conference room awaiting the arrival of Brawnsfield and his team with 01. They'd been stuck in the, although rather spacious with a wonderful window view, room for 2 hours and counting. Some people were slowly going insane because they hadn't felt natural air in over 48 hours.

Senator Dockson lit up a large, Cuban cigar. He took a few puffs before commenting, "So, Miss Relena, these are the qualified young men that you had trusted with retrieval of 01? Great job, if I do say so myself." He looked at her and winked before chuckling to himself.

Ms. Swib, noticing the rather nasty way Relena was glaring at Sen. Dockson spoke up. "Senator, I totally agree with you," she said opting to ignore the way Dockson had meant his remark, "These fine young men and women-she added with emphasis- did an excellent job in the retrieval of 01 and I want to personally thank you for your hard work." She sat back in her chair and clapped lightly.

As she did this a little bit of the tension in the air began to seep away. Her goal of lighting the mood in the conference room, even a little bit, was a success.

Dorothy spoke reluctantly, "But we still haven't solved the matter of where Brawnsfield is with 01." She thought for a moment before saying softly, "You don't think that Brawnsfield took him somewhere and..."

Sen. Dockson barked loudly. "Ha! Miss, don't be absurd. I'm sure they just stopped for a little doughnut break or something."

Dorothy glared heatedly at Dockson and began a mental list with the title, 'Ways to Kill Senator Dockson...Slowly.'

Duo spoke again, "Absurd or not, there is no reason why he shouldn't be here with 01. He could've at least called in to notify us if something had happened or there was a change a plans."

"Which there shouldn't be," Wufei put in.

Duo nodded his countenance with Wufei and continued, "Yeah, and I think we should really start thinking of all the possibilities."

"I agree, something isn't right," Trowa spoke as he finally stopped shuffling useless papers.

Relena stood up, "I agree as well and propose that we take this to Une and demand that she..." She was cut off by a loud bang that sounded like it came from down the hallway. She jumped slightly, "What was that?"

No one made a sound and just a few seconds later another bang came forth, only this time it sounded a lot closer. In the background they could hear various shouts by different men.

"What the hell is going on?" Duo slowly stood up and his hand unconsciously strayed towards his holster.

Wufei snapped his gun together and looked at the door in anticipation just as a series of bangs started to sound off.

Senator Dockson saw this and his face turned deathly pale. "Sh-Shouldn't someone g-go out there and s-see what's happening?" He stuttered as he began backing up as the bangs grew closer and closer.

Relena jumped and almost fell into her chair as the next bang sounded hard against the door. It was so hard that the door shook on its hinges, threatening to come off.

Ms. Swib screamed as the door flew open and numerous bodies, encased in black and camouflage, fell through the door. They seemed to be wrestling with something over their head and in the back of her mind she concluded that it was a body.

And indeed it was. A body, held over Brawnsfield and his team's heads, was struggling out of their grip with ardor. Brawnsfield felt his grip on the body decrease and threw it onto the table with disgust.

Quatre jumped out of his chair with a gasp while Duo, Trowa and Wufei jumped back, tripping over their individualized chairs. Relena and Dorothy cried, "Oh my goodness" as the body hit the table hard. Ms. Swib, and the agents could only stand and watch in shock, Dockson leaped back and slammed into the wall.

The men at the door stood their, waiting for the next move from the figure on the table. Brawnsfield wiped away blood that was dribbling down his chin and felt at his split lip. He swore loudly before kicking a stray chair in frustration.

The figure slowly got up to where he was in a sitting position and looked up at the man in front of him. He winced slightly as he moved his jaw around and spit out a wad of blood in the direction of Brawnsfield. Heero smirked as he noticed the blood land on his shoes.

Brawnsfield had pure murder in his eyes. "You little fuckwad."

"Eat shit and die," Heero snarled and barely suppressed another wince as his jaw felt a little more than just bruised.

Suddenly, Brawnsfield chuckled and wiped at his mouth again. "Well, Miss you got your 01. Happy?"

"You and your men are dismissed, Brawnsfield." An agent spoke next to him. He snorted before gathering his men and hittin' the bricks.

Heero tensed as he heard a gasp from behind him. 'Fuck it, nothing else could top this,' he thought but quickly found he was wrong. He turned around slowly and found his eyes focusing on a pair of cornflower blue. Now it was his turn to gasp and he did so loudly.

Relena raised a pale hand to her mouth and felt her eyes begin to water. "Heero," she whispered aloud and choked on a sob.

"Oh my God," he whispered back. Standing in front of him was a 23 year old "Queen of the World." He could honestly say he didn't know how to act. 'This is too bizarre,' he thought. What were the odds that everything that had happened to him recently were linked to Relena Peacecraft. "Oh God," he spoke again softly and broke eye contact only to be zapped into a pair of ice blue eyes. He felt himself become faint as he realized he was now looking at Dorothy Catalonia. What the fuck!

This was getting just too weird as he stared at her and she stared right back. There was a bit of uncertainty in her eyes as she began to look over his form. He raked a trembling hand through wild chocolate locks, afraid at what he'll see next.

He scanned the next few people quickly, recognizing them automatically. Quatre. Trowa. Wufei. Senator Dockson of California. And then, his eyes locked onto violet and he couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. The only thing he could do was drown in the endless pool of amethyst. Abruptly, feelings came flooding back to him. Fear. Love. Security. Freedom. Ecstasy. Pain. Anger. Distrust. Loathing.

Heero clearly remembered the last few feelings and snapped out of the hypnotic gaze.

Duo continued to stare at Heero before slowly letting his eyes drift away. Just looking at him brought back so many memories and feelings. He could even smell Heero, a distinct smell of Jasmine 2 and felt himself fall for the quiet young man all over again. 'Too bad he hates me,' he thought sullenly and felt his mood slowly spiral into the ground. 'Pull yourself together man, we have a job to do. Personal matters come later.' There might still even be a chance for him. Just 5 seconds ago they had a little moment and Duo would be damned if he didn't try to get that moment back. It didn't matter if Heero was plotting to kill him, he would still get Heero to talk to him, one way or another. He'd done it before and damn it, he was going to do it again.

Heero had enough. Too much shit was happening to him; the very people that-for six years-he'd been hoping were all dead with maggots infesting their sorry bodies were standing in front of him very much alive with zero maggots covering them. His hair was a mess, he smelled, his feet were killing him and he could feel a nasty headache slowly taking over his mind. This was definitely not a good day.

He groaned and put his head in his hands. He distantly heard someone yell for some water. 'It better be some sugar water dammit! I need a kick of something.'

* * *

"Someone get him some water," an agent next to Duo yelled out as he snapped out of his trance. That seemed to be the proverbial light switch for everyone began to move. Even though it was only to heave themselves into chairs, it was a move nonetheless.

Ms. Swib, since she was the closest to the door, decided to be the one to go get 01 some water. She came back shortly and slid the tall glass into his hand.

Heero knocked the glass back and emptied it in 2 big gulps, once he was finished he wiped his mouth with his arm. Once he felt slightly hydrated he spoke gruffly. "What the fuck is going on?"

"U-Uh," Ms. Swib tried but his glare was quite domineering.

Senator Dockson cleared his throat loudly to get the attention on him. "First of all, would you please take a seat."

Heero fought a blush and slid off the table and into a large swivel chair. He rested his forearms on the table and looked back at the Senator.

He cleared his throat once more. "Well 01," he noticed that the young man had flinched in reference to his code name but he paid no heed to it, "we called you here today on an important matter. But let me just say, for the record, you are one tough young man to find." He chuckled at his joke and soon found that he was the _only_ one to think his joke funny.

Heero stared at him as if he was a bug he wanted to crush...hard.

Dockson coughed. "But ,uh...what I mean to say is that it took a great deal of skill to find you, but you were worth it. The reason to all of this is that we need you. You represent something very important, you symbolize something." He stood up and began to walk around the room as he went on, " You, as well as the 4 young men across from you, fought a grueling battle 6 years ago that we are all appreciative of. No one more than I. You may not have known but I was also a participant in this unmerciful clash between right and wrong. I was a second- in-command General for..."

Relena cleared her throat suggestively as if saying 'Get back to the _real_ topic asswipe.'

"Uh, anyway since a year after the end of the war we have been having a sort of country wide event where we celebrate the day the war officially ended. Ms. Swib, will you fill him in on the rest." Dockson headed back to his chair and sat down.

Ms. Swib blushed before nodding. She opted to stay in her seat and talk directly to 01. "First off, let me say welcome to Earth. I know the means as to how you got here was less than desired but, dare I say welcome anyway. Now, to finish where Senator Dockson left off-we do have a little celebration that we hold on the day the war ended every year. It is held on July 20, as you know. 3 We have a big cook out, puzzles, games and prizes for children as well as adults. Musical entertainment, sports games and we've even got clowns and such.

It's a very big deal, not just to us, but to other people as well. We have this event for many reasons. Mr. JoHansen, another 'founder' of this event, who couldn't be here due to health problems gave another reason as to why we have this event: to commemorate our soldiers for their obvious job well done, to share our bad times and good times with others who have gone through the same thing and to remember friends and family that were lost during the cause to peace."

As Ms. Swib paused Relena cut in softly. "Every year we have the pilots come out and sort of go around and talk to people. Mingle with them, share stories with them, that sort of thing." Relena stared into cobalt blue and almost cried at the coldness that was swimming there. "Every year shows a percentage of people who don't show up. That reason is because Pilot 01 isn't there."

Heero fought to keep the shock from showing. 'Why would someone want to see me? Who really cares about me?'

Relena continued, "This yearly reunion is more like a therapy session to some people. To show that there really is peace and that peace will stay. And many people would like to meet the saviors of the world...all of them. People have noticed that you aren't there Heero and they figure if you don't come, why should they?"

Heero absorbed the information given to him and began to analyze it. Of course he had heard of the country wide reunion. Who hadn't? They had it broadcasting every year, every where but he had refrained from watching it for obvious reasons.

He didn't think that they needed him, though. 'Only because there was a decrease in public attendance did they decide to contact me...or rather kidnap me,' he snorted mentally and it was true. That had to be the only reason. Otherwise, at this current moment, he would've been shaking his ass in some 70+ year old man's face.

"So, let me get this straight. You want me to attend this year's reunion because the people aren't coming as much as they used to?" He questioned as he looked from Relena, to Ms. Swib, to Senator Dockson. He refrained from looking anywhere in front of him.

They all nodded 'yes.'

Heero nodded and said, "Okay."

"Okay? Like yes! You'll do it?" Relena spoke excitedly with clasped hands held against her chest.

"No." He said flatly.

Relena frowned, slightly confused. "Wait, no?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"Yes, you'll do it?" She said with a slim eyebrow raised in question.

"No," he repeated with a smirk. This was just too fun.

She huffed and leaned back in her chair. "No, you won't do it?" She tried again.

"Right," he decided to conclude. He was tired of the game and eager to get home.

Relena's face fell, "Heero, why not? It would be really beneficial to a number of people."

"Except me," he said but took one look at Relena's crestfallen face and quickly added, "look, what you're doing is great but I can't do it. I'm sorry." He cursed himself for ever growing a conscience but it was true. He couldn't be here any longer than necessary. He couldn't take the fact that the very group of men that he was trying to forget ever existed were currently sitting across from him, staring right at him with no shame.

"01-Heero-it would be in your best interest if you reconsidered." Senator Dockson spoke staring dead at him.

"You trying to threaten me, Senator?" Heero drawled slowly.

"No, sir. I'm just saying, it would be in your best interest, as well as others, if you decided to stay and participate in our function. You'd be up here for a total of 3 weeks, more or less and I understand that you may have had prior engagements to attend to but we will make it worth your while. Simply put, we will pay you."

All heads turned to Senator Dockson who was fishing for another cigar in his coat pocket.

Relena glared at him hotly, "Oh, we will?" She had been put under the understanding that they were only to pay him as a bribe if he wouldn't come with Brawnsfield to Earth. But clearly, he is here so...what the hell?

"Of course we will. 350,000 dollars to you, if you choose to stay." He remarked smoothly.

'Holy shit! That's a lot of fucking money. I could get out from under Johnny, get out of that shitty apartment and maybe even go to college.' He thought excitedly. But then again, he had to deal with old demons and situations that were better left alone. 'Fuck them, I can benefit from this and help a few people along the way. It's not like I'll have to see them everyday either. Just once in a while, I'll probably be dealing mostly with Relena, Senator Dick and this other lady-Ms. Swib.' Not too bad of a sacrifice.

"Alright then," he spoke finally, "I'll do it."

* * *

There...chapter 7. Yall, happy now? Was it to your liking? You know what to do to let me know.

1 - I'm sorry but I really couldn't help my self.

2 - I don't know what it is but everyone matches Heero with the smell of Jasmine and it really is a pretty smell so why not jump on the band wagon, huh?

3 - Dunno when the war really ended so I just picked a month. Am I close?

Music

Ryan Carbrera - _True_ and _40 Kinds of Sadness_

Dave Matthews Band - Anything really but _Space Between_ is great!

Kelly Clarkson - only for _Behind These Hazel Eyes_

Saliva - Rest In Pieces

Matchbox Twenty - Anything

Gwen Stefani - Rich Girls and Holla Back Girl

CUZ I AINT NO HOLLA BACK GIRL!


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